America’s growing interest in international soccer continues to show in television ratings.
According to WorldSoccerTalk.com, Fox Sports averaged 997,300 viewers per game at this month’s Copa America Centenario, in part thanks to the United States’ surprise run to the tournament’s semifinals.
The most-viewed game on Fox was the U.S.’s match against Argentina (3,290,000 viewers), followed by the final between Argentina and Chile (2,997,000). The average excluding USA games was 745,167 viewers per match.
These ratings are well below the numbers Fox got last summer with the Women’s World Cup, which is a testament to 1) the allure of a World Cup, 2) the degree to which Americans love America and 3) the fact that viewers will watch good soccer regardless of whether men or women are playing it.
Copa outperformed ESPN’s ongoing Euro 16 coverage, which has averaged 815,705 per match, though that figure beats Fox’s non-U.S. average for Copa.
Meanwhile, Univision blew away Fox as far as Copa ratings, averaging 3.1 million viewer per game in a tournament full of teams from Spanish-speaking countries.
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About Alex Putterman
Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.